Since our negotiations last year, we have been clear with MultiCare: Charge Nurses are WSNA nurses. The charge nurse role is critical to a safely run unit. These experienced leaders have the clinical skills to make decisions that affect patient outcomes. Charge nurses are responsible for matching patient acuity to the skills and abilities of nurses on shift, run codes, ensure correct low census and floating order is followed, and act as a resource to everyone on shift. They are quite literally the hub of a unit – providing an anchor for all the doctors, nurses and families to connect to in taking care of our patients.

This requires charge nurses to be physically present on the unit. Clinical Assistant Nurse Managers (CANMs) are just not there. This role is important, but worth noting is that it is primarily office-based. This means they are in large part in meetings or off the floor – not on the unit, where patient care happens.

When MultiCare started requiring Clinical Assistant Nurse Managers (CANMs) on certain units to take two charge shifts a week, they made it clear that they see charge nurse duties as an afterthought to office duties and productivity metrics. MultiCare has told us that they are not interested in discussing the role of CANMs with us at negotiations because it is not a bargaining unit position. If this is the case, why are CANMs doing bargaining unit work?

The answer is simple: MultiCare wants all nurses to do more with less. 

In the case of CANMs, they want them to do two jobs for the price of one. We’re fighting back against these attacks on our union and standing up for the charge nurse role. Today, we are filing a Unit Clarification (UC) petition with the National Labor Relations Board arguing that CANMs are doing bargaining unit work and as such, should be added to our unit and represented by WSNA. We are filing this petition across all WSNA MultiCare facilities to ensure that the CANMs at Good Samaritan and Mary Bridge NICU are also properly classified.

We know that asking CANMs to do office duties alongside their charge duties is a stressor for them. There is high turnover for this job, and many CANMs have expressed that they would rather be doing their administrative work than taking a charge shift. One nurse responded to a CANM survey put out at Good Samaritan by saying “Our CANMs are wonderful but it isn't fair that they are required to do two charge nurse shifts a week per their management…I think it keeps them from their administrative tasks more.”

What’s UC petition? 

This petition, called a Unit Clarification Petition (UC), is filed to seek clarification on the scope of a Bargaining Unit. We are contending that charge nurse duties are solely the work of WSNA bargaining unit nurses – MultiCare should either agree to fold CANMs into the Bargaining Unit or stop requiring CANMs to do charge nurse shifts.

What’s our contract say? 

Article 5.5: Bargaining unit nurses, with the appropriate knowledge, skills, and ability, will have priority when a charge nurse assignment(s) is determined as needed.

The fight so far: 

WSNA has filed grievances on CANMs at all MultiCare WSNA facilities. At Tacoma General, we won an expedited arbitration process in their last contract, which will be heard in June. In addition to going through the grievance process, we took collective action during contract negotiations and delivered management hundreds of signed cards from WSNA nurses at Tacoma General calling for the charge nurse role to return to where it belongs, with a Union Nurse.

What can I do to help?

Ensure that you fill out an ADO every time there are unsafe conditions for you or your patients because of CANMs being asked to do two jobs. We need to continue collecting evidence that shows that asking CANMs to do charge duties on top of their other work is unsafe for everyone on the unit.